Spring Training`s A Risky Business

March 26, 1985|By Steve Daley.

I haven`t been there this year, and I don`t think I`m going. To spring training, I mean.

If you`re like most sports fans, you figure that sportswriters probably invented spring training. After all, it`s a perfect excuse for cold-weather typists to vacate the frozen Midwest and fly away, at company expense, to temperate climes.

I know what you`re thinking. Wasting away in Margaritaville, searching for another angle on the Cubs and the Mets, or the Mets and the Cubs. That kind of thing.

Truth is, spring training can be more fun than visiting the eye doctor. Sunny skies, no humidity, white-hot mornings spent around the batting cage talking to ballplayers who figure you`re a germ.

You loll about the press box for an hour or two, then repair to the pool bar for sissy drinks and dinner plans.

Hey, it`s more fun than trying to talk to Georgetown`s John Thompson.

But recent dispatches from Florida and the desert indicate that spring training in the modern era has taken on a savage and dangerous new look.

All these year-round fitness buffs, the ones who don`t really need a training camp because of their million-dollar investment in their bodies, are collapsing in a heap.

Down in Miami, the Orioles` Fred Lynn has soreness in his lower back. Kind of hard to believe, isn`t it? Freddie doesn`t usually start hurting until September, when his team is in a pennant race.

In Winter Haven, not too far away, American League batting whiz Wade Boggs has a sympathetic response, enduring spasms of the lower-back variety.

In Ft. Lauderdale, Rickey Henderson, the littlest Yankee, sprained his left ankle and headed for his Oakland home. Dave Winfield is, as they say, resting comfortably with an infection in his left elbow.

Toby Harrah used to be a Yankee, but now he`s with the Texas Rangers in Pompano Beach, Fla., and is out for a couple of weeks with a bum ankle.

The California Angels can be counted on to malinger with the best, and pitcher Ken Forsch and outfielder Juan Beniquez have come through, with a sore arm and a groin pull, respectively.

Toronto is in Dunedin, Fla., not far from the Sox`s camp in Sarasota where Julio Cruz is limping, and pitcher Jim Clancy just signed on the disabled list after an appendectomy.

The Detroit Tigers are world champs, and the big news out of Lakeland, Fla., has shortstop Alan Trammell nursing a sore shoulder and first baseman Dave Bergman suffering through an elbow problem, the kind where fluid is being drained.

George Bamberger is back in the game as manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, and it appears Bambi spends most of his time talking about shortstop Robin Yount`s slow recovery from shoulder surgery during the winter.

The Indians` Andre Thornton came up lame last week, and has abandoned Arizona for a hospital in Cleveland. Torn cartilage, left knee, if you`re counting.

That`s your American League wrap-up, folks. No scores, no rookie phenoms, no extra charge. Oh, Seattle`s Ken Phelps ran into San Francisco`s David Green over the weekend, and the Mariners` first baseman came away with fractured ribs.

You say you`re a National League loyalist? Then you better get it through your head that Marcus Welby is more important this time of year than Don Zimmer.

In Bradenton, Fla., the Pirates lost two players last Sunday when Bobby Bonilla collided with Leon Roberts. Broken bone, ligament damage, sore shoulder.

The despised Mets are working out in St. Elsewhere, uh, St. Petersburg. The good news, the only news, really, is that two pitchers, Bruce Berenyi and Brent Gaff, are being examined by the team sawbones for shoulder difficulties. The Houston Astros labor in Kissimmee, Fla., where the roster of halt and lame sounds like the Domers are going to Kissimmee spring training goodbye.

Jerry Mumphrey has a hamstring pull, Kevin Bass has a sore back, Jose Cruz has the flu and Bill Dawley has pain in the elbow.

Glenn Hubbard, the resident second baseman in Atlanta, missed all the games last weekend after taking a cortisone shot, while Giants` outfielder Alex Sanchez is dealing with a broken rib.

Pete Rose`s Reds are concerned about the stiffness in the elbow involved in Mario Soto`s pitching arm, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are watching pitcher Rick Honeycutt recover from that ever-so-common shoulder cutting.

Charlie Lea was the best pitcher on the Montreal staff last summer, but word from West Palm Beach is he might start the season on the disabled list.

And the Cubs, the Cubs. Scott Sanderson has a groin pull. Davey Lopes is hurting, Tom Veryzer bruised one of two wrists, Chris Speier, the back-up for the back-up at short, injured a shoulder and Richie Hebner owns an ankle ailment.

All that, from Fred Lynn to Cubdom, in a single day`s report from the baseball camps.

This is a rite of spring? This is fun?

I think the governors of Florida and Arizona ought to declare Mesa and Kissimmee and Vero Beach and Yuma disaster areas. Apply for some federal money and, next year, let`s have the players go home and drink all winter.

No more Nautilus machines, no more aerobics classes, no more working out in the garage. These guys have got to start taking worse care of themselves.